PN Staff

On 19 January, Christian peace activist Chris Cole was sentenced to 30 days imprisonment by Westminster central magistrates court for non-payment of a fine following a protest at the DSEi arms fair in September 2009. Chris spraypainted “Build Peace Not War Machines” and “Stop this Bloody Business” across the entrance to the QEII conference centre in central London, where the high-level “UK defence conference” was being held.

Defending himself in court, Chris, coordinator of the…

Iraq’s third annual Week of Nonviolence began on 10 October, organised by La’Onf (“no violence” in Arabic), a network of nonviolent Iraqi civilians and civil society groups.

The theme of this year’s actions was making the upcoming provincial elections safe, free, and truly democratic.

During the intensive week of activities La’Onf stuck up masses of posters, and handed out nonviolent literature to soldiers, shoppers, schoolchildren, police, politicians, youth and women’s groups…

On 12 September, 40 climate activists occupied a new site in Happendon Wood, South Lanarkshire, Scotland to set up the Happendon Wood Action Camp (THWAC), to help defend the wood from destruction by Scottish Coal.

The Scottish Resources Group (SRG), which owns Scottish Coal, have applied for planning permission for a mixed-use development on this land (which is in an area of Great Landscape Value) in the Douglas Valley, but they intend to mine the area first.

It is…

In a stunning vindication of their disarmament action, seven defendants in the EDO Decommissioners case were found “not guilty” at Hove crown court, despite admitting causing £180,000 damage to the EDO/MBM arms factory in Brighton. (See PN 2506.)

Five of the activists – Simon Levin, Bob Nicholls, Ornella Saibene, Harvey Tadman and Tom Woodhead – were cleared by unanimous verdicts of the jury on 30 June, and the last two defendants – Chris Osmond and Elijah Smith – were cleared by…

US army whistleblower Bradley Manning has now been charged with “communicating, transmitting and delivering national defence information to an unauthorised source”. Manning, an army intelligence analyst, was arrested in May over the leaking of the so-called “Collateral Murder” video, which shows a US helicopter gunning down civilians during a July 2007 raid in Iraq.

Manning now faces a possible 52-year jail sentence if convicted. Manning, 22, who sat his GCSEs in Wales after his…

On 3 August, a fire broke out in the explosives area at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) Aldermaston. Despite there officially being “no radiological implications” to the fire, a number of local residents were evacuated from their homes.

The Nuclear Information Service (NIS) warned of the risk of a “domino effect” of explosives igniting each other, and raised questions about regulatory standards at AWE, where a number of operations are not regulated by the Health and…

A British soldier who spent four months in jail for refusing to return to Afghanistan has spoken of the “unbelievable support” that he received from fellow soldiers during his imprisonment at the Military Corrective Training Centre in Colchester.

Jailed in March and released on 12 July, Joe Glenton told left-wing website Counterfire that “there was a period they went through when they’d all chant ‘Free Joe Glenton’ on parade – half to probably annoy the staff, and half-joking…

On 2 August, the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space learned that its upcoming annual international organising conference in Nagpur, India, had been blocked by the Indian government, the first time in 17 years that any country has banned the network from meeting. The gathering, planned for 9-11 October, has been cancelled, but all events for “Keep Space for Peace Week” (2-9 October) are going ahead.

Global Network coordinator Bruce Gagnon said: “It is good…

Dear friends, Peace News is growing and expanding! We’re making ambitious plans for the future development of PN; we’re starting new regular activities to support the peace movement, such as the Peace News Summer Camp and the Peace News Winter Gathering (15-17 January in Nottingham); and we hope to do more to help support uplifting nonviolent initiatives with events such as the Peace News training for participants in the March on Gaza.

We hope to carry out more activities outside…

On 20 June, activists occupying a plot of derelict land beside Kew Bridge, London, held an “open day” for their planned eco-village. The site was taken by over 70 people on 6 June.

The campaigners say they were inspired by the example of the “Pure Genius” land occupation in Wandsworth, carried out by The Land Is Ours (TLIO) in May 1996 (see PN 2406), and the tradition TLIO traced back to the 17th century English movement known as “the Diggers”.

Local people have been very…

In 2008, a small group of women in Kandahar, Afghanistan, decided to gather in a public square to pray for peace with justice in Afghanistan on International Women's Day. They expected only a few women to show up, but more than 1500 women gathered in Kandahar that day. This year on Women's Day thousands of women across Afghanistan demonstrated for peace and women's justice wearing sky-blue scarves to highlight unity and solidarity across generations, languages, geographic locations, ethnic…

Joe Glenton – the British lance corporal who refuses to return to Afghanistan on grounds of conscience (see PN 2513) – has had two charges of disobeying a lawful command dropped. Glenton, who handed himself in after two years absent without official leave, still faces one charge of desertion, and will face a court martial on 2 November.

US resisters

At least three US soldiers are currently in jail for war resistance.

Cliff Cornell travelled to Canada in 2005 to resist…

Abbie Hoffman
Abbie Hoffman, a co-founder of the Youth International Party, or YIPPIES, led the October 1967 attempt by over 50,000 people to levitate the Pentagon using psychic energy. In 1968, he was one of the leaders of anti-war protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which led to his prosecution for conspiracy to cause riots as one of the Chicago Eight (he was sentenced to five years in prison, but the sentence was overturned on appeal). After a period…

Whisper & Shout, described as a “new irregular and guerrilla publication” aiming to “print poems and features of guts and sensitivity”, edited by Dennis Gould and published in February 1968:

I disrespect Governors and Government, Lawmakers and Law. I respect conscience and direct nonviolent actions. Disobedience and Love are two gentle but fierce commandments of anarchists and pacifists involved in this trivial and consuming society. Disobedience and Love are two themes of poets…

One of the most deeply educational books we've read is Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran by Roy Mottahedeh (Oneworld, reprinted 2000) which explores the texture of life in Iran as well as theology and history.

The best all-round book on the current crisis remains Andreas Malm and Shora Esmailian's Iran on the Brink (Pluto, 2007), reviewed in PN2485. Roger Howard's Iran in Crisis? Nuclear Ambitions and the American Response (Zed, 2004) and Iran Oil: The New Middle…